Game Informer was the first to report the news, confirming it with follow-up calls to Microsoft's switchboard. Microsoft has yet to comment further on the matter.

Orth, who has since switched his Twitter account settings to private, lit up the online world earlier this week with a single Tweet.

"Sorry, I don't get the drama around having an 'always on' console," he wrote. "Every device now is 'always on'. That's the world we live in. #dealwithit."

That led Microsoft to quickly distance itself from Orth's comments publicly.

"We are aware of the comments made by an employee on Twitter. This person is not a spokesperson for Microsoft, and his personal views are not reflective of those of the company," the company said in a statement. "We have not made any announcements about our product roadmap, and have no further comment on this matter."

Orth described the exchange as a back and forth with his friend Manveer Heir, senior gameplay designer at Bioware, a claim Heir backed up. But the genie was out of the bottle and Orth's tweet (and subsequent follow-ups), which many saw as dismissive or aggressive, stirred up a hornet's nest.

The comments were particularly ill-timed given rumors that Microsoft will indeed require users to be constantly connected to the Internet to play any games -- including single player. But more recent reports on The Verge suggest that 'always on' feature may not be tied to games at all, but rather will be due to the system's integration with cable TV boxes.

Either way, Orth’s ordeal serves as a reminder to watch what you tweet -- especially if you work for a major video game publisher.